Entrepreneurs can ‘Assemble’ at Kimball Junction

Assemble Park City is a shared office concept work space that offers flexible leases, furnished offices and conference rooms and a collaborative lounge with interactive features. Image courtesy of Assemble Park City.

John West, CEO and president of Cottonwood Partners, has invested and developed over 6 million square feet of office space throughout Utah, California, Texas, Florida and Washington, D.C., since the company’s beginnings in 1997. However, the Assemble work space at Kimball Junction is the first "collaborative work space" West has ever owned.

West and David Nadler, owner of Cassis Capital Partners and director of Cushman & Wakefield Commerce, are managing partners of Assemble, a "shared office concept." The work space includes 11,289 square feet of rentable offices, conference rooms and a collaborative "lounge" area.

"It’s a space for those that want to rent a couple of offices and don’t want to commit for a long time," West said of the flexible leases. Tenants can lease on a month-to-month basis in a small, personal office that comes furnished with a desk, chair, phone system and Wi-Fi Internet service.

"We have individuals and their small companies renting out about four or five offices, because they are growing. They can’t commit to 2,000 square feet, because they might soon need 4,000 square feet," Nadler said. "Here, they can expand or they can contract, and they can be here for months or years, whatever they need."

Assemble has a reception area and a receptionist, so tenants do not need to hire a secretary. Conference rooms are free to use by tenants, and there is a 3,000 square foot "café lounge" where tenants can meet and collaborate or hold interactive meetings.

Off-white leather seats with built-in desks and couches are scattered strategically throughout the space with two large flat-screen televisions where tenants can upload documents and presentations to give during meetings using the Wi-Fi Internet service. It also includes a central copy machine where tenants can scan to or print and copy from their own computers as well as fax documents in and out.

Renters range from businessmen like Wayne Cantwell with Decathlon Capital Management to Roger Burrows, a technology expert and author. Cantwell is renting four office spaces and a conference room for his company and finds the spot ideal, because he expects to expand. He enjoys the diversity of the work space.

"As it grows, there are more and more people you can meet and talk to, which is better than sitting in your own home office with four walls, very quiet," he said.

Burrows agreed. He is renting only one small office space to conduct his research and writing and finds it beneficial to get out of the house.

"The disadvantage [of a home office] is you suddenly remember you have to walk the dog or be somewhere else, a lot of distractions," he said. "The house is nice to relax in and forget about work, so it feels great to get in the car and go home. It’s much better for the mind."

He added that he enjoys popping out into the hallway or the lounge and "smiling at a couple of faces." West and Nadler said they feel an open work space is the future of office environments and are glad to be able to offer that in an area like Kimball Junction.

"You’ve got the recreational center, open trails, all the retail, a hotel and it’s 20 minutes from Salt Lake City and 20 minutes from Main Street," West said. "There has been another [space like this] in town and a few other variations, but there wasn’t anything like that in this area. We have had a lot of interest in it over time."

Cantwell had been looking for a space like Assemble for a while and became the first tenant while Burrows had been asking Nadler about the same thing for several months. West and Nadler came together to create Assemble and hope other entrepreneurs like Cantwell and Burrows will find what they are looking for with their open and flexible work space.

"I came from a meeting in SLC this morning with a large tenant that’s been in the space now for 15 years, and they want to totally re-do their space to attract the new generation of workers," West said. "They want to be in that kind of space, a more collaborative space, with break-out rooms and so on. [Assemble] meets the trend of where all office space seems to be going today."